Tepid Con Job Spoils Sexual Intrigue in ‘Deception’ With Ewan McGregor

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:01:00 -0700

CHICAGO – Despite its timid title, “Deception” has all the right ingredients for a decent tale of mystery: a strong premise, sound acting and the famous femme fatale. It even starts with a promising conviction: How does a background player in life deal with initiation into a secret society?

Michelle Williams (left) and Ewan McGregor in “Deception”.
Photo credit: IMDb

The real mystery is why this strong beginning led to a such weak and conventional conclusion.

Ewan McGregor portrays Jonathan McQuarry: a mousy accountant who specializes in corporate audit assignments. His life is long hours, ever-changing clients and little social reward.

While completing a routine audit at a law firm, he meets an attorney named Wyatt Bose (Hugh Jackman). After bonding over tennis and a strip club, Bose lets McQuarry in on a secret: He belongs to “The List”.

The List is a sex club that allows anonymous coupling with no strings attached. It’s used by power brokers who presumably have no time for relationship entanglements.

Ewan McGregor (left) and Maggie Q in “Deception”.
Photo credit: IMDb

McQuarry is let in on The List when he accidentally switches phones with Bose and the encounters start ringing him up.

One such encounter – the enigmatic “S” (Michelle Williams) – gets coerced into further meetings by McQuarry despite the rules against fraternization between members on The List.

Their bonding leads to a closer relationship that triggers several strange occurrences involving kidnapping, blackmail and McQuarry’s knowledge of corporate accounts.

While this is a film about the con, great cons don’t telegraph themselves like this one.

Though three actors with great reputations work hard on their characters, the script gives them highly improbable circumstances on which to settle. While Hugh Jackman seems to be having fun with everything, he doesn’t seem to have the chops to tackle the less savory parts of his character.

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Though Michelle Williams gives her “S” persona an appropriate aura, her development afterward is confusing. The List is the coolest and most dangerous element of the film.

There is an amazing montage with McGregor trysting with various ladies including an older sexpot played by veteran Charlotte Rampling. There seemed to be more happening in the exchange between McGregor and Rampling than the rest of the main story’s complex con game.

That should have been the movie. Another problem was the love story that develops between “S” and McQuarry. Williams plays it like she they were feeding her pages as she went along.

There’s no overall sense that the two have the type of intense, abiding love that would allow for the risk factors to make this whole charade make sense. She is a woman of uncertainty – OK – but she carries that blank slate all the way. The web is simply too tangled in practicing this deception.

“Deception” opened on April 25, 2008.

By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

Akin to ‘Match Point,’ Woody Allen’s ‘Cassandra’s Dream’ Expressly Hitchcockian

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:35:06 -0700

CHICAGO – Woody Allen – the most prolific American writer/director of the last quarter century – has a desire for a particular expression in this last part of his epic career.

For the “lion in winter” phase, Allen is exploring topics of morality and behavior that are directly connected to the deadly sins. “Cassandra’s Dream” – Allen’s third film in a row set in London – this time shines a light on the struggling middle class and the desperate nature of having to rely on outside wealth to compensate their lifestyle.

Ewan McGregor for “Cassandra’s Dream” on Sept. 11, 2007.
Photo credit: WireImage.com

Colin Ferrell and Ewan McGregor portray brothers Terry and Ian: blood relatives who dream of a more upscale life.

Trapped in menial jobs, they each struggle to tamper their damaging habits. Terry has a problem gambling addiction and Ian obsesses over a business deal that might bring him success.

The situation is further complicated when Ian falls in love with Kate (Sally Hawkins): a beautiful actress whose desire to move up in the world is as strong as the brother’s.

When a wealthy uncle (Tom Wilkinson) offers Terry and Ian everything they want in exchange for a “job” they must do for him, the line that is crossed changes both lives and plunges the closely bonded brothers into a moral dilemma that alters everything around them.

Woody Allen for “Cassandra’s Dream”
on Sept. 2, 2007.
Photo credit: WireImage.com

Like Allen’s previous film “Match Point” in 2005, which has a similar subject, “Cassandra’s Dream” explores the human frailties within the abject desire to be wealthy and successful. While it is the fear of losing out that propels each of the crimes in the two films, the consequences and vulnerabilities that are exposed belie a deeper loss of humanity.

Allen’s style here is expressly Hitchcockian. The tensions mounted and the ability of the narrative to focus on particular elements that end up meaning nothing (which Alfred Hitchcock called the “MacGuffin”) put this film in league with the master of suspense.

With Allen exploring deeper psychological ramifications within the moral transgressions, there is more opportunity for self-inflicted punishment.

Allen’s choice of actors gets instinctually stronger as he appears less in his own films. Ferrell is spot on as Terry and has all tics and bad habits intact. He embodies a middle-class garage mechanic in love with his loyal girlfriend and his family. He is a flawed black sleep – but a moral one – with a clear perspective on right and wrong.

Sally Hawkins is a revelation in her first major role as the actress Kate – looking ironically like a more beautiful Kate Beckinsale (if that is possible) – but with a strength in characterization that is both subtle and chilled.

The similarity to “Match Point” is the main weakness of “Cassandra’s Dream”. While there is a feeling of déjà vu in viewing both stories, there is enough understated differences to create a distinctive landscape or at the very least a strong variation on the same theme. For Woody Allen, even mental masturbation is filmmaking for someone he loves.

“Cassandra’s Dream” opened on Jan. 18, 2008.

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By PATRICK McDONALD
Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com